Cutting edge in its field. I have learned a lot here in less than 2 years. The people here are the best. Everyone is willing to help and I learn from them every day. The work environment is very flexible, which makes it great for working mothers. The Chicago and SF offices are very nice (I have not been to the Houston office yet). And, while this may seem small, they pretty much pay for my cell phone. It's nice little gestures like that that really show they care.

Cons

Almost too much socializing. We go out monthly, have semi-annual all-company get-togethers, and there are the random "let's everyone grab something at the bar" nights. Last year I couldn't make it to everything (missed the Cubs rooftop and Whirlyball nights). Would be nice if they we got to vote on what nights the monthly outings are so I don't miss things.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Management should promote their family-friendly attitude more. They have great family policies but downplay them (I almost did not accept the job because I didn't know about the flex time). I pretty much work 4 days a week, which in consulting is unheard of. In other words, dear bosses, don't be humble... tout what makes your great!

-Work with some smart people-Learn about interesting technologies/topics-Good office space

Cons

-No integrity in the firm's senior leadership-Salary on a per hour basis is a joke (no 401K match either)-Bonus is a joke-Incredibly long hours and weekends doing trivial, monotonous work that can and will be slightly altered and need to be completely redone on the whim of a director or managing director-1/2 the job of an analyst is to check and recheck sentences and numbers in reports

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Be more open and less secretive. Treat your employees with respect. If you anticipate that a project will cause someone to work 80 hour weeks, maybe staff some more people on it. Hire more people instead of pouring the money into luxury cars.

Smart, fun, and helpful coworkers. I love the people here. Management appears to really care about us. Great office space. The work is interesting and challenging, and it seems like I frequently learn something new.

Cons

Work can be erratic at times, with some unplanned late nights. While I understand this can happen in consulting, it still can be upsetting when I have to change my personal plans to finish a project.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

It would be good to have monthly outings, instead of only having "fun" nights every other month. This would be especially important if we have had to work any late nights.

1. Company has "unlimited PTO", which is good because you don't have to acrue PTO before using it. It is bad because you may not have ownership over a certain amount of days, so it may be hard to take off 3 straight weeks even though you have 15 days, for example, depending on your boss. Management is overall very understanding of taking time off, and I would say the average employee takes more time off here than most other firms, which is a plus. All time off is paid.

2. Very casual, familial culture. Some employees, especially the director and MD level employees seem to have been there a long time. I think this is a sign that people really do enjoy working there if there isn't turnover.

3. Paid continuing education classes if management approved of it.

4. Alot of after work fun events designed to allow employees to have fun and bond, even in the economic downturn.

Cons

1. No 401K match even in an uptick in the job environment.

2. Niche business, so transferability of skills is very weak at best, most exit opportunities are other patent-related businesses. If patents are what you love, this isn't a con. Business school is intriguing as the experience is very different than other business school applicants. There isn't much the company can do about this con as patents are their business.

3. We paid 20% of the healthcare costs pretax.

4. From my understanding, some of the business lines may pay below market rates.

5. There is some expectation that you work for other groups in times of downturn in your business line, which I disliked. Employees have their strength and weaknesses which make them bad fits for other business lines sometimes. We also don't get compensated based upon work for other lines, so incentives are not aligned there.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Aim for a higher standard of entry-level employees. Except on the West Coast where there are USC and UC Berkeley hires, aspire to hire the top students everywhere. In the Midwest (biggest office) in Chicago, management does not hire heavily at U of Chicago, Northwestern, Notre Dame, etc, which are the best schools in the region. It is more common to see U of Illinois, Indiana University and DePaul at the firm. No disrespect to those schools, but there isn't even a recruiting presence at the previously mentioned schools. I think it results in lower quality work.

LocationFriendly peopleSmart peopleWell-rounded individuals in and out of the officeLearn some of the soft skills - they are all really good talkers since they work with clients and sell jobsChicago's biannual meeting was always fun

Cons

Can feel lonely and stressed a couple of days - but you feel that in every jobWork can get boring since you work with lots of data in MS Excel and type up reports in MS Word

Good mix of challenging work, interesting new projects, and "typical" assignments. My coworkers are great... all the people here are willing to help and are very friendly. The company promotes teamwork and "everybody getting ahead". Management has both true visionaries and good everyday managers.

Cons

The company offers unlimited time off with pay, which sounds great but it can be hard to get as much time off in large blocks as you want. Taking a few days or a week off a few times a year is easy. But trying to take more than 2 weeks off at once can be challenging. Last year I was only able to take 5 weeks off total, and was not able to take the month-long vacation I had hoped for.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Don't offer free ice cream on Fridays in the summer so I don't get fat? Just kidding. But except for the vacation issue I think this company does a great job of working with people.

Excellent company to learn and grow with. My coworkers are great, probably the best anywhere. I have made many friends here at all levels of the company. We work on both "tried and true" things and cutting-edge ideas. Overall, a great place.

Cons

Most benefits are good (health plan and vacation are great), but the company does not match 401k contributions. I thought everyone did that.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

A week ago I would have said to do something fun for the summer, and then on Friday they announced that we would have a free ice cream cart in the office every Friday this summer. So someone is thinking ahead!

Great culture and people. Less like an impersonal business and more like a family working together. They constantly provided me opportunities. I learned a ton while I was there (left to go into a completely different line of work). Good mix of "regular" and "new" projects. Sometimes the hours were long but at least we were all working together.

Cons

They do not match 401k contributions and dental plan is below average. Other than that, things were great for a long time. Unfortunately, early this year things got a bit rough because of the economy and the "non team players" at the company began grumble and cause trouble. Once they left everything was good again though.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

I think the best advice I could give would be to tighten recruiting standards so no more "non team players" get back into the firm. A few bad apples can spoil the whole barrel.

The company has several nice, intelligent, hard-working employees. Work product is thorough and accurate. The company encourages a very innovative culture.

Cons

The hours can be demanding, as some projects can require late nights and weekends. The company has a very small, familial culture and some employees have not enjoyed similar successes and/or opportunities as those who have been around longer.